Crime Victimization and Suicidal Ideation Among Colombian College Students: The Role of Depressive Symptoms, Familism, and Social Support

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1367-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha I. Zapata Roblyer ◽  
Sonia Betancourth Zambrano

Crime victimization is one of the most pressing public health concerns in Latin America. Young people in the region are at particularly high risk of victimization. The present study examined exposure to crime victimization as a risk factor for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation, and the protective effects of familism and social support in a community sample of Colombian college students. Data ( N = 424) came from the Juventud Project (The Emergent Adults Project), a cross-sectional study of college students, 18 to 29 years old ( M = 20.8, SD = 2.5; 63% female; 75.5% lived with their families), attending an urban public university in Southern Colombia. Data were collected between March and June of 2014 through anonymous, self-administered surveys. Conditional process analysis was used to test a model in which crime victimization was directly and indirectly associated with suicidal ideation via depressive symptoms, with familism and social support as moderators of this association while controlling for gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Overall, 58.9% of participants reported at least one crime victimization event in the past year. The most common types of victimization were being robbed without the threat of harm (29.8%) and being robbed with a weapon (24.8%). Male participants reported more instances of crime victimization than female participants. Levels of depressive symptoms that could be clinically significant were reported by 30.2% of participants, and suicidal ideation was reported by 31% of participants. The association between crime victimization and suicidal ideation was fully mediated by depressive symptoms. Social support, but not familism, moderated this association; social support weakened the link between depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Findings suggest that crime victimization may be a significant risk for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among college students in Colombia, and that social support may protect from the harmful mental health effects of crime victimization.

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1399
Author(s):  
Nahathai Wongpakaran ◽  
Awirut Oon-Arom ◽  
Nuntaporn Karawekpanyawong ◽  
Trustsavin Lohanan ◽  
Thanakorn Leesawat ◽  
...  

Suicidal ideation is a serious condition antecedent to suicidal attempts and is highly related not only to depression but also other psychosocial factors. This study aimed to examine the predictive effects of these potential factors for suicidal ideation among young adult university students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of university students in Thailand. An online questionnaire employed the perceived stress scale-10 (PSS-10), the patient health questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), the multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS), and a screening instrument for borderline personality disorder. An ordinal regression analysis was applied to determine the predictive effects of the independent variables. Of 336 students, the mean age was 20.26 ± 1.3 years, 80.4% of whom were female; 14.3% had suicidal ideation. The significant predictors of suicidal thoughts were perceived stress (AOR 1.11, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.22); depressive symptoms (AOR 1.16, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.22); borderline personality symptoms (AOR 1.19, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.40); and perceived social support (AOR 0.97, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.00). Not only did depressive symptoms contribute to suicidal ideation but they also constituted important variables. Therefore, they should be included in intervention plans to prevent suicidality among university students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S144-S145
Author(s):  
Daniel Nunez ◽  
Susana Campos ◽  
Rosario Spencer ◽  
María Faúndez ◽  
Andrés Fresno ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Along with other domains of psychopathology, adolescents are at increased risk for psychotic experiences (PE) as well as for suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidal attempts. Literature has found robust associations between PE and SI, with suicidal risk appearing higher in subjects with persistent PE, in general and clinical samples. However, the associations between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation are not clearly understood, and the role of common risk factors in this link, such as depression (DS), is controversial. Moreover, causality has yet to be properly stablished between PE and SI. A study recently found psychosis may be consequential to suicidal behavior. Under the novel “suicidal drive hypothesis for psychosis” framework, we examined whether depressive symptoms mediate the association between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation on cross-sectional data from a community sample of adolescents. Additionally, we tested this mediating role when both PE and SI were the outcome variables. Methods 1708 Chilean school adolescents aged 13–19 years (M=15.68 + 1, 67, women= 39%) answered an online mental health screening between May and October 2019. The screening encompassed several questionnaires adapted for Chilean subjects, including the Columbia-suicide Severity Rating scale, the Community assessment for Psychic experiences (CAPE-P15) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Informed consent was granted by the parents and caregivers of adolescents. Mediation analyses were executed with the PROCESS statistical package. PROCESS runs regression-based mediations based on the Baron & Kenny procedure. A 5000 bootstrap resampling was used to estimate 95% confidence intervals; these are used to identify an indirect effect that suggests mediation. Results Pearson’s correlations showed significant associations between all the variables in (SI-DS: r= .624, p<.001; PE-SI: r= .539, p<.001; PE-DS: r= .708, p<.001). No demographic variables (i.e age, gender, education) were correlated significantly to the dependent variable (DV), therefore no covariates were controlled for in the mediation analyses. In the mediation analyses, model 1 showed SI as the DV. The link between psychotic experiences and suicide was mediated by depression (b= .3433, 95% BCa CI [.2981, .3885]). When the mediators were not included in the model, PE significantly predicted SI (b = .113, t = 26.45, p < 0.001). Additionally, in model 2, where PE was the DV, the link between suicidal ideation and psychotic experiences was mediated by depression as well (b= .3794, 95% BCa CI [.3431, .4150]). When the mediators were not included in the model, SI significantly predicted PE (b = 2.57, t = 26.45, p < 0.001). Both models exhibit robust and significant partial mediations. Discussion Our results indicate that depressive symptoms partially mediate the association between SI and PE. Moreover, either PE or SI could be outcome variables when depressive symptoms are mediators. This adds new evidence supporting that PE could consequential to SI as stated by the “suicidal drive hypothesis for psychosis”. Our exploratory findings must be carefully interpreted, mainly because of our cross-sectional design, and the fact that there could be unmeasured or non-controlled psychopathological confounder variables in our models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S6-S7
Author(s):  
Susana Campos ◽  
Pía Monjes ◽  
Johanna Wigman ◽  
Daniel Nunez

Abstract Background Youth mental health is a global challenge, with onset of mental illness peaking in adolescence. In this population, depressive symptoms (DS), psychotic experiences (PE) and suicidal ideation (SI) are prevalent and risk factors for future mental disorders. DS could mediate relationships between psychotic experiences (PE) and suicidal ideation (SI); however, its precise role in this association remains uncertain. We examined whether depressive symptoms mediate the association between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation using two complementary approaches to cross-sectional data from a community sample of adolescents. We hypothesized that DS mediate relationships between PE and SI. Additionally, we expected to find that specific DS would play a central role in this association and that this would show via higher centrality values for affective symptoms reflecting low energy, hopelessness and self-depreciating feelings in the network analyses. Methods We examined cross-sectional relationships between PE, SI and DS in a community sample of adolescents (N= 1715; 13–19 years old) recruited from Chilean secondary schools between April and August 2015. We addressed depressive symptoms (DS) using the Depression and Anxiety Scale (DASS-21). We assessed suicidal ideation using 6 items of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), adapted for being used as a self-report questionnaire. We addressed psychotic experiences (PE) by items of two pre-existing scales we adapted in prior studies with adolescents: the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences - Positive scale (CAPE-P15), and the Brief Self-report Questionnaire for Screening Putative Pre-psychotic States (BQSPS). We first conducted a mediation analysis, where PE was the predictor, SI was the outcome, and DS were the mediator variables. Next, we performed a network analysis and estimated the strength centrality index for each symptom, and the network robustness through accuracy and stability test. Results Pearson’s correlations showed significant associations between all the variables in (SI-DS: r= .491, p<.001; PE-SI: r= .436, p<.001; PE-DS: r= .617, p<.001). No demographic variables (i.e gender, age) had to be controlled for in the mediation. The mediation analysis yielded that depression mediates the relationship between PE and SI (b= .2206, 95% BCa CI [.1783, .2644]). Additionally, network analysis showed the following strength centrality values (SV): depression (mean= 5.92, σ2=1.72; median= 6.08); bizarre experiences (mean= 3.94, σ2=0.35; median= 4.02); perceptual anomalies (mean= 3.75, σ2=2.21; median= 3.75); social anxiety (mean= 3.49, σ2=0.79; median= 3.23); negative symptoms (mean= 3.32, σ2=.23; median= 3.49). SI was strongly connected to pessimism (SV= .69); social anxiety (SV= .41); and self-criticalness/worthlessness (SV= .39). The correlation stability coefficient for the strength was (cor = 0.7) = 0.672, suggesting robustness of the findings. Discussion Our findings support prior research showing that DS mediate relationship between PE and SI and adds to this literature by showing which symptoms in particular are important. Some specific depressive symptoms having a central role in this process (pessimism and worthlessness) and also psychotic experiences (social anxiety: being distant to people) and perceptual anomalies (seeing things other cannot) are connected in a meaningful way to suicidal ideation in a community sample of adolescents. These findings should be considered when planning early detection/intervention programs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Núñez ◽  
Pía Monjes ◽  
Susana Campos ◽  
Johanna T. W. Wigman

Associations between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation are not yet fully understood, and the potential role of depressive symptoms in this relationship remains unclear. The current study examined relationships between depressive symptoms (DS), psychotic experiences (PE) and suicidal ideation (SI) using two complementary approaches on cross-sectional data from a community sample of adolescents aged 13–19 years (N = 1,591). First, we investigated the association between the three domains using mediation analysis, showing that depressive symptoms partly mediate the relationship between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation. Second, we looked at associations between the three domains at item level using network analysis. Specific associations between symptoms of the three domains were found, indicating depressive symptoms of sadness, avolition, pessimism, and self-criticalness/worthlessness as the most central symptoms in the network. Suicidal ideation was associated with the depressive symptoms pessimism and worthlessness, to social anxiety, and to perceptual anomalies. Our results show that the mediating effect of depressive symptoms between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation may be due to associations between specific aspects of SI, depressive symptoms and psychotic experiences. These findings can contribute to the planning of health services and programs aimed at the timely detection of psychopathology and suicidal risk in young people.


Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Laura R. Umphrey ◽  
John C. Sherblom ◽  
Paulina Swiatkowski

Abstract. Background: Cultivating positive feelings of self in relationships with others can affect perceptions of belongingness and burdensomeness. Aims: The present study examines the relationships of self-compassion, hope, and emotional control to thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and suicidal ideation. Method: Participants were 481 college students who completed scales measuring self-compassion, hope, emotional control, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and suicidal ideation. Results: Correlation and parallel mediation analysis results show relationships between self-compassion, hope, and emotional control with perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and suicidal ideation. Limitations: The study is limited by its cross-sectional design, sample demographics, and inability to distinguish between individuals with suicidal ideation and those who attempt suicide. Conclusion: The results show that the relationships of self-compassion, hope, and emotional control to perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and suicidal ideation are worth further investigation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-220
Author(s):  
Ahmed Waqas ◽  
Aqsa Iftikhar ◽  
Zahra Malik ◽  
Kapil Kiran Aedma ◽  
Hafsa Meraj ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesThis study has been designed to elucidate the prevalence of stress, depression and poor sleep among medical students in a Pakistani medical school. There is a paucity of data on social support among medical students in Pakistan; an important predictor of depressive symptoms. Therefore, this study was also aimed to demonstrate the direct and indirect impact of social support in alleviating depressive symptoms in the study sample.MethodsThis observational cross-sectional study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, where a total of 400 students at a medical school were approached between 1st January to 31st March 2018 to participate in the study. The study sample comprised of medical and dental students enrolled at a privately financed Pakistani medical and dental school. The participants responded to a self-administered survey comprising of five parts: a) demographics, b) Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), c) Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), d) Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and e) Perceived Stress Scale-4 (PSS-4). All data were analysed using SPSS v. 20. Linear regression analysis was used to reveal the predictors of depression.ResultsIn total, 353 medical students participated, yielding a response rate of 88.25%. Overall, poor sleep quality was experienced by 205 (58.1%) students. Mild to severe depression was reported by 83% of the respondents: mild depression by 104 (29.5%), moderate depression by 104 (29.5%), moderately severe depression by 54 (15.3%) and severe depression by 31 (8.8%) respondents. Subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, daytime dysfunction and stress levels were significantly associated with depression symptoms. Social support was not significantly associated with depressive symptoms in the regression model (Beta = -0.08, P < 0.09); however, it acted as a significant mediator, reducing the strength of the relationship between depressive symptoms and sleep quality and stress.ConclusionsAccording to our study, a large proportion of healthcare (medical and dental) students were found to be suffering from mild to moderate depression and experienced poor sleep quality. It is concluded that social support is an important variable in predicting depressive symptomatology by ameliorating the effects of poor sleep quality and high stress levels.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Pereira ◽  
Jaclyn A. Ludmer ◽  
Andrea Gonzalez ◽  
Leslie Atkinson

This study examined maternal depressive symptoms, social support, parenting, and adult attachment as mediators explaining the relation between maternal childhood maltreatment and child behavior in offspring. We assessed a community sample of 96 mother–child dyads. At child age 16 months, mothers self-reported maltreatment history, adult attachment, depressive symptoms, and social support, and maternal sensitivity was assessed via 2 hr of direct behavioral observation. Maternal reports of child behavior were collected at 5 years. Single and parallel mediation models were constructed. Only maternal depressive symptoms mediated the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s internalizing problems. Maternal sensitivity emerged as a suppressor variable. With respect to the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s externalizing problems, when entered singly, maternal depressive symptoms, social support, and avoidant attachment emerged as mediators. When examined in parallel, only maternal depressive symptoms and avoidant attachment accounted for unique mediating variance. Findings have implications with respect to important maternal factors that might be targeted to reduce the probability of maladaptive child behavior.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Duriez ◽  
Theo A. Klimstra ◽  
Koen Luyckx ◽  
Wim Beyers ◽  
Bart Soenens

Because the authoritarian personality was introduced to explain the rise of fascism during World War II, research focused on its ability to predict prejudice, leaving its associations with well–being largely unexplored. Studies that did examine these associations yielded inconsistent results, and some authors even argued that authoritarianism buffers against the negative effects of psychological vulnerability factors (i.e. D–type personality) and negative life events on well–being, especially among people in an authoritarian environment. Using a cross–sectional community sample (N = 1010), Study 1 failed to support the idea that authoritarianism relates to depressive symptoms and buffers against the negative effects of D–type personality on depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal college student sample (N = 499), Study 2 showed that authoritarianism did not moderate the effects of life events either and even predicted over–time increases in depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal high school sample (N = 590), Study 3 showed that this effect emerged regardless of degree of fit with the social environment (i.e. with family and friends). Taken together, results suggest that authoritarianism constitutes a risk factor for rather than a protective factor against depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


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